bootson | Greetings & Salutations ;; PG

Title: Greetings and Salutations
Pairing: Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto
Rating: PG…ish
Summary: Chris breaks rules when greeting friends, especially Zach, regardless of venue.
Word Count: 1527
Warnings: Some language that may make it more PG-13 and some not subtle innuendo.
Disclaimer: Clearly, this is a nonprofit product of my warped and depraved mind. I deal in lies, kids.
Beta: My lovely

chellealistic,only because she wants to read things first. ;)
AN: For This Prompt at

trek_rpf_kink. I didn’t admit I was working on it because I wasn’t sure I’d finish since I got all wrapped up in Irony/Revision and the Quinto-centric versions (slowly but surely in the works) and forgot about it. Then I realized I was in an angst spiral, the totally awesome SNEAK HUG fics happened, and this started begging to be finished. If the last bit isn’t meshy with the beginning, that’s because I wrote them about a week apart (also, I really hope it doesn’t look like a rip off of the Sneak Hugs. It kind of feels that way now…). So. Yeah.

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Maybe they weren’t normal. Zach could accept that, had accepted it a while back. Guys didn’t just kiss by way of greeting, farewell, and gratitude. Admittedly, Zach did, on occasion, with certain men…none of which came across as straight as Chris Pine.

But Chris wasn’t a fan of the archetypal structures of behavior and chose to make his own rules. He ignored personal space, hugged everyone, sat too close, patted knees, kissed cheeks, kissed lips, held hands, ruffled hair: basically, Chris liked physical contact and took it from anyone who wouldn’t erupt into convulsions. His publicist apparently hated him for it, but when you have bright blue eyes giving you that I-swear-I’m-innocent-want-a-hug? look what can you do?

Zach had been taken aback the first time Chris kissed his cheek and the first time he grabbed his hand under a table for no reason. He grew out of it quickly because, well, Chris clearly had no inclination to stop and Zach liked it.

Okay, yes, he liked the extra attention. If he deluded himself into thinking Chris was just a bit more hands on with him than anyone else, he’d never admit it. The entire cast was close, but Chris and Zach took it to a new level, so whatever. They were best friends. If they touched more, fine. Get over it. John, Simon, and Karl were still deathly amused, but they stopped mocking toward the end of filming the first movie. Mostly, anyway. Zoe still cooed like they were puppies and Anton still rolled his eyes.

For all his grabby hands, Chris kept it professional. In public, the only person he openly kissed (cast wise) was Zoe. Zach was the same way. It was fine, perfectly fine. Until they were arriving at the MTV Movie awards to promote the sequel with random appearances and a ridiculously cheesy, yet appropriately silly, mock trailer they had filmed a few weeks ago.

Zach arrived somewhere between Karl and Zoe, Chris some time after her. They hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks, promotion due to start in a few more, so they were all overflowing with enthusiasm when they ran into one another between brief interviews, random photo ops, and autograph signings. The energy of the crowd, the bright sun, and the fact that this was an awards show only added to it.

Zach hadn’t seen Chris yet, having been pulled too far away to keep an eye on the new arrivals. After signing something orange, he didn’t pay attention to what, he turned in time to see Zoe swept up in a hug. He’d recognize those admittedly sexy shoulders anywhere; yes, shoulders could be sexy, backs could be sexy, Timberlake said it first…sort of. Chris hugged Zoe tight for a moment, pulling back to plant a light kiss against her lips while camera flashes erupted. They were both laughing before they even faced the crowd, Chris making a show of it like he did with everything before they were both accosted by a microphone wielding woman who was laughing just as hard.

He shook his head, chuckling quietly because Chris was cute when he was excited. It was even more amusing because he had greeted their beautiful friend in much the same manner, with slightly less fanfare. And just maybe he was a little disappointed that the best he could hope for was a side hug for the cameras even though he hadn’t seen Chris in a little too long after living on top of each other during filming. But it was fine, there was plenty of time to mock during the show since their seats were close together.

In the midst of discussing how excited he was to be “premiering” a new trailer, the woman grinned.

She nodded a bit, clearly in response to something being said into her ear piece. “They’re sending Chris Pine this way,” she positively beamed. “You two are introducing the clip together, right?” Zach nodded. “Can we expect more Kirk and Spock antagonism or a stronger friendship this time?”

His lips twisted into a smirk, loving that this joke was so publicized. “Sneaky! All your questions are going to be answered in just about an hour.” Not that he really knew the timeline, but that wasn’t important.

Catching movement in his periphery, Zach turned, microphone still in hand to grin at his friend. “And here’s Chris. Trying to be inconspicuous and slip into the shot,” he tried to sound put out but laughter was behind his words.

“Aw. I feel the love,” the interviewer laughed, waiting for Chris to speak.

“Hey, man!” Was all she could pull from Chris’ mouth for a moment.

The camera was on him, they both knew it, but Chris just shrugged with the same easy grin and shining eyes he’d been sporting since he arrived. Instead of giving the cameras a show with his biting sarcasm, Chris decided to give his publicist a coronary. Without breaking stride, Chris closed the space between them, Zach was secretly thrilled that he may actually get a real hug out of the deal until he realized that grin had turned mischievous. He raised a hand to Zach’s shoulder and the other to his cheek before pressing their lips together.

Admittedly, it wasn’t as chaste and innocent as the one between Chris and Zoe. Zach’s eyes initially widened, arm going around Chris under auspices of maintaining his balance. In actuality, he pulled Chris closer for a second and nearly dropped his microphone when Chris pulled away, nipping at his lower lip in the process. Ah. That was the reason for the hand on his face. It took a lot of effort not to blush or make some pitiful noise when their mouths parted.

In the end, he did get that much coveted Chris-Pine-greeting-hug. Hand dropping from his face before he was ready, Zach was soothed when Chris wrapped both arms around his shoulders, mouths lining up with ears.

“Missed you,” he whispered.

“Me too,” Zach’s voice shook from what he would swear was tightly controlled laughter. At the last second, he tilted his head to press a kiss of his own just below Chris’ ear where it was hopefully obscured by the angle, the whole scene lasting maybe a minute total starting with the kiss, before they broke apart.

They were both laughing at the flashes and screams, Zach’s arm still around Chris’ waist, fingers curling in the material to hold him there while he tried to ignore the still present tingle on his lips. Chris’ arm found its way around his own shoulders as they turned back toward the camera. Unconsciously, Zach’s tongue darted out to trace his lower lip, eyes on Chris’ mouth before he remembered propriety. Then again, Chris had just damned propriety all to hell.

“Wow. That was…affectionate.” There were some belated cat-calls behind them from the fans, making them both laugh harder.

“What can I say?” Chris shrugged, giving Zach a squeeze before pulling away. “I missed this guy.”

“He has decorum issues,” Zach complained affectionately, starting to redirect before they could get cornered with “dating” questions. Chris, love his spontaneous heart, played right along.

“Nah. I just love people. You wish you had my decorum, Zach.”

“I prefer to think I wasn’t raised in a barn.”

“I’ve seen some nice barns. Spacious, great for entertaining.”

They wrapped that up quickly, making their way toward the entrance together from there, bumping shoulders along the way. Neither of them mentioned the kiss, even if it had been a little more desperate than Chris’ usual greetings.

“Seriously, man. What was that?” Zach finally asked, his patience reaching its limit, and tugged Chris’ sleeve as they cleared the doors and were ushered toward their seats.

“What? I can’t say hello my way?” There was a shine in his eyes, one Zach had learned to classify as manipulative, beware the Pine schemes.

“I can just see the tweets. And, God, the blogs. I bet they’re already up.” They both laughed, surprisingly unperturbed by the idea that one tiny little kiss would cause so much

“The taglines will read: Chris Pine has Quinto-withdrawal, starts making up for lost time at the MTV Awards.” Then he winked.

Zach raised his eyebrows in suspicion. “Yeah? Was that the motive, not your basic salutation?”

Glancing at his watch, Chris thanked the assistant who had led them to their seats before continuing. “We have forty minutes before we’re needed backstage.” He wrapped a hand in Zach’s shirt, tugging him closer to whisper against his ear. “Want to find a dark corner and I’ll let you figure out which?”

His eyes widened as he muttered some random nonsense syllables before getting out something coherent.

“I like dark corners.” Maybe it lacked elegant sentence structure and supreme wit, but Chris didn’t seem to mind if the lingering kiss to his temple was any indication.

Pushing Zach back a step, Chris brushed around him and further into the building. Zach didn’t ask how he knew where he was going when Chris reached back to grab his wrist and threw out a low “Yeah. I thought you might say that.”

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: "Heartless" ~Kris Allen